District to study MCAS trends

Although Weston Public Schools is making some strides in improving its already-strong Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) scores, school officials said there remains room for improvement.

Weston students, on average, far outperformed their peers around the state in every grade and subject, but Todd Whitten, assistant superintendent of teaching and learning, identified several areas the district can target for higher scores, particularly in 10th grade English. 

The town is not alone in this, as Weston is part of the statewide six-year decline in 10th grade English scores, despite its scores still being high.

In English, Weston’s top-tier students, those exceeding expectations, continued to thrive. Some students in the middle who previously met expectations, however, likely dropped into the partially meeting expectations category. This year, a quarter of 10th graders partially met expectations, the most in any high school subject since 2023, according to state data.

Whitten said there are two main factors behind the dip: a state-supported theory of “test fatigue” and a Weston-specific issue in the test’s writing section where 10 students declined to write essays and five failed to adequately answer the essay prompt. Those students, he noted, represent about 10% of all 10th graders.

“The state is saying that this is a result of test fatigue for a test that the voters of the commonwealth said does not matter for graduation,” Whitten said. “We’re not loving that answer to be honest, but in looking through it, we know who the students are, so we will now be looking at those students as they move into the next year of English, [to evaluate] how is their essay writing. Is this fatigue, or does this represent something we need to dig into?”

Around the state, 45%, or fewer than half of students, met or exceeded expectations in 10th grade English, a six-point drop from 2025 and a 16-point drop from 2019, according to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

If further analysis proves test-taking fatigue isn’t impacting Weston’s 10th grade scores, Whitten said the district is prepared to implement initiatives focused on long-form writing, including working with students on how they can take basic skills and transfer them into higher-level reasoning and idea development.

While the 10th grade’s slight decline was a major takeaway, Whitten said there is success to report at Weston Public Schools. Many student subgroups showed substantial improvement in several subjects.

Over the last four years, the number of students with disabilities in grades three through eight meeting or exceeding expectations has improved by 13% in math, Hispanic and Latino students have improved in English by seven points and low-income students have improved by 33 points in 10th grade math. “High-needs students,” including English language learners, students with disabilities and low-income students, are also showing progress.

Whitten credited the district’s continued interventions for those students. He noted data was aggregated in grades three through eight in some of those categories to protect student privacy because the cohorts are so small.

“It becomes difficult for us to burrow into those subgroups,” he said.

School Committee member Ken Newberg said school-level data shows some subgroups have slipped in the elementary schools. For example, state data shows scores in each racial demographic at Field School have slipped in the last four years. Black students in particular have struggled, with 25% meeting or exceeding expectations, according to state data.

Whitten said they are focusing on improving those scores through the lens of “belonging and working on greater psychological safety in the classrooms,” alongside the continued review of new elementary literacy and math initiatives and targeted interventions.

“It is a tough nut to crack,” Whitten said. “It’s not just us, it’s statewide, and we’re all working to try and improve this outcome.”